On Tuesday evening, I watched election returns on PBS. The most useful comment for me came from David Brooks, around 10:30 p.m., as the whole on-air team were clearly reeling at the reality of a likely Trump victory. Brooks said something like, “At times like these, it is tempting to blame the voters for making the wrong choice. But I think it is better to ask myself, ‘What did I miss?’” That’s advice I intend to follow. I will stay curious.
I knocked on around 700 doors for Democrats in the past two months, and I have a word for fellow partisans who occasionally voiced fears for my safety. Even when I encountered a citizen who clearly supported the other side, I did not feel myself to be in danger. Folks were, on the whole, polite and civil. Terse or tense, for sure, and it could get awkward. But nothing went ballistic.
We have so much work to do, much of it necessarily with those who are rejoicing at the national result, even as I sorrow. Difficult as I expect the work to be, I am prepared — I will even say eager — to do it, believing that there is still a foundation on which to build, including a common desire for the flourishing of our country, however differently we conceive it. Let us roll up our sleeves and meet our neighbors.
